EDITORIAL REVIEWS
Sets Shostakovich's large-scale works against his smaller pieces written for various occasions! Sonata No. 1 is the young Shostakovich at his most daring and intransigent. Shostakovich often performed this sonata, and its stormy torrent of energy amazed enthusiastic listeners. In October 1942 Shostakovich received news that his piano teacher L. Nikolaev had died, and he decided to write a tribute piece, Sonata No. 2. This ascetic-sounding work, shot through with the tragedy of war and siege of Leningrad, was composed in the spring of 1943. Three Pieces were composed in 1920 and contain imitations of past styles. The Children's Notebook was intended to teach children music with a gradual increase in difficulty. The acid wit heard in the works of the 1940s turns up in the Charlie Chaplin-esque Murzilka. Three Variations on Glinka were composed for the fortieth anniversary of the 1917 Revolution and were Shostakovich's last major work for solo piano, a portrait in music of the Soviet era.